I got 'er transferred over to secondary this afternoon. Man, did the pumpkin pie aroma pop out when I opened the fermenter. The beer was pretty clear going over to secondary, but I'm gonna wait a day or two 'til it's completely clear before adding the spice tea.
I had a full gallon of trub in the fermenter!!! Guess that's what I get for deciding not to filter out the pumpkin. It was obviously due to the pumpkin, it was orange-ish and I seldom get more than a quart or so of trub normally.... ahh well, I got ~4.25 gal of clear brew into secondary. Since I ended up with a lighter beer, and less than planned, I'm gonna go easy on the spices for secondary.
First go-round for my new Better Bottle!! The foam is starsan.
I was surprised to see this much trub when I pulled the fermenter out of the swamp bucket! I'll be filtering the pumpkin out next year for sure.

Yeah, that's one good argument for only mashing the pumpkin, but I feel like I get good flavor from boiling it, so I like to do that too. I had a good amount of trub even when filtering it through a grain bag. I think the pumpkin liquifies enough that most will go right through the mesh bag, but I could be mistaken.

I think you're right, man. The pumpkin gets very thin and comes right through. I noticed that it almost dissolved when I boiled just canned pumpkin in water. And I think you're also right that you get more of the flavor and aroma in the boil as opposed to mashing. This year's batch is much more pumpkin-y than I remember last year's being. And I think I like it. It's crystal clear in the carboy now, so I'll spice it up tomorrow and bottle next weekend.

I'm glad I found this thread. I have a similar recipe in the primary now and was a little nervous. All the recipes I found mashed the pumpkin but I was determined to boil it, certain in my heart of hearts it would work. I was glad to see it break up so well in the boil, but my carboy has 3/4 gallon of pumpkin trub after only ~3 days. Freaked me out. Happy to see Im not alone!

I brewed this recipe a few weeks ago and it is now in the secondary awaiting the spice tea. But before I add the spices, I had a question about adding spices since this is my first time adding spices to the secondary.

I am using a better bottle for my secondary and I have a hop bag for the spices, however, if I steep with the hop bag the ground spices will fall right through since the holes in the hop bag are not fine enough to hold ground spices. Is the goal of the spice tea for the spices to mix in with the wort? Or are the spices supposed to stay in the hop bag and just the flavoring come through?

I have whole cinnamon stick and allspice (I ground using a mortar and pestle during the boil). Should I leave these both whole when steeping?

I brewed this recipe a few weeks ago and it is now in the secondary awaiting the spice tea. But before I add the spices, I had a question about adding spices since this is my first time adding spices to the secondary.

I am using a better bottle for my secondary and I have a hop bag for the spices, however, if I steep with the hop bag the ground spices will fall right through since the holes in the hop bag are not fine enough to hold ground spices. Is the goal of the spice tea for the spices to mix in with the wort? Or are the spices supposed to stay in the hop bag and just the flavoring come through?

I have whole cinnamon stick and allspice (I ground using a mortar and pestle during the boil). Should I leave these both whole when steeping?

I appreciate your input!

What I did was add the spices to boiling water, steep for 10 or so mins and add direct to secondary (I used a Better Bottle too). No bag, but I did remove the stick cinnamon before adding. The "tea steep" kills two birds with one stone, sterilizes the spice and extracts the tastiness. Gravity will take car of the rest.

I bottled this about 10 days ago and it was amazing. Tony, it actually tasted like pumpkin pie this year. I got a lot of pumpkin (not spice) flavor, and a bit of a chewy mouthfeel too. I'm so psyched for this one, I think we nailed it!

What I did was add the spices to boiling water, steep for 10 or so mins and add direct to secondary (I used a Better Bottle too). No bag, but I did remove the stick cinnamon before adding. The "tea steep" kills two birds with one stone, sterilizes the spice and extracts the tastiness. Gravity will take car of the rest.

I bottled this about 10 days ago and it was amazing. Tony, it actually tasted like pumpkin pie this year. I got a lot of pumpkin (not spice) flavor, and a bit of a chewy mouthfeel too. I'm so psyched for this one, I think we nailed it!

That is the method I was reading about when adding spices, but in Onipar's original post he said not to boil so I was confused. I guess I am over thinking this too much, but I just want to get it right because I'm excited for this brew!

I think he means not to actually boil the tea that was being added to secondary. It's the same as if you were steeping an earl grey or green leaf tea. Boiling drives off aromatics. However, you want to preboil the water, and have it above ~170 or so so that the spices can be sterilized/pasteurized before being thrown into the beer. What I did, and have done in the past is to boil the water, 5-10 mins just to be sure. Remove the boiled water from heat, add mixture of spices and let stand for another five or ten mins (covered, and sanitized, I'm always really careful about anything hitting the beer post fermentation). Then I add that to the secondary. Works well, adds a lot of aroma. The tea will take a bit of time to blend in, and for the solids to settle, maybe a week to ten days.